Combination Platter

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All Rise...

Judge Dan Mancini will have the Number Five with hot 'n' sour soup.

The Charge

"Sometimes you still seem, well, like you're having trouble expressing
your thoughts. You feel like that?"—Claire

The Case

Writer-director Tony Chan's 1993 winner of the Sundance Film Festival's Waldo
Salt Screenwriting Award tells the story of an illegal immigrant from China
named Robert (Jeffrey Lau, A Chinese Odyssey). Working as a waiter in a
small restaurant in New York called the Szechuan Inn, Robert sends most of his
earnings to his parents in China. The central obsession of his life is obtaining
a green card so he'll have the freedom to visit his family without giving up the
potential financial benefits of life in America. Robert's only hope of acquiring
legal immigrant status is to marry an American citizen. After striking out with
a Chinese-American girl with whom he has little in common culturally, he's
ambivalent about meeting an acquaintance of one of his friends, a shy American
computer programmer named Claire. The duo's relationship moves haltingly
forward, hampered by barriers of language and culture, as well as Robert's guilt
over his ulterior motive. Meanwhile, life goes on at the Szechuan Inn, where
conflicts arise between workers from different parts of China; the staff
struggles to deal with the bullish idiosyncrasies of their American patrons; and
one of the waiters is caught skimming money from the staff's shared tips in
order to pay his rapidly mounting gambling debts. Matters are complicated for
Robert when immigration agents turn their attention to the restaurant and its
staff just as he decides to come clean with Claire, whatever the
consequences.

Combination Platter has the slice-of-life structure that's almost de
rigueur in indie features. Plot threads peter out rather than climax, and that's
mostly okay because the movie is as much about the theme of frustrated
communication as it is Robert's adventures in gaining legal immigrant status.
Despite the Sundance award, the screenplay is loaded with clunkers: A smarmy,
mulleted American guy tries to entertain his Chinese-American girlfriend with
the old "Help! I'm being held captive in a fortune cookie factory!"
gag at the end of their meal at the Szechuan; nearly anything that comes out of
the mouths of a couple knuckleheaded sports fans who are always chatting up the
gambling waiter, Sam; or an absurdly heavy-handed scene in which an irate
customer in an ironed-on "This is America—Now Speak English!"
T-shirt berates a waiter for not understanding why she's dissatisfied with her
meal. Chan tries to walk the fine line between witty, stylized dialogue and
closely-observed naturalism, but frequently fails. Where he succeeds is the
complexity with which he examines barriers in culture and communication, and the
discomfort people feel in being cut out of conversations, unable to connect with
the people around them in the most basic way.

While Chan's handling of American characters is mostly broad caricature, the
precision with which he explores the frustrated communication between Chinese
characters at various stages of assimilation into Western culture is
fascinating. This is a milieu in which the wife of one of the restaurant's cooks
is upset because their son is marrying a girl who speaks Cantonese rather than
Mandarin. The Chinese immigrants use the derogatory term "ABC" for
Westernized, English-speaking American-born Chinese. They're attracted to
America's offer of greater financial freedom, but find Americans and their brash
culture abhorrent. Is it any wonder Robert has trouble relating to
Chinese-American women, let alone a Caucasian who's only knowledge of Chinese
culture is Moo Goo Gai Pan? Perhaps the best piece of extended dialogue in the
entire film is a conversation between Robert and a Chinese-American bartender,
the owner's niece. The bartender, who speaks no Chinese, describes her
embarrassment at being snickered at when she orders a Coke at a local Dim Sum
place, her frustration at not being able to understand what the staff is saying,
and the discomfort of knowing she's the subject of their conversation. The movie
explores this sense of isolation from multiple angles, relating Robert's
struggles in the larger American culture and with Claire to various characters'
hardships within the Chinese-American subculture.

Unfortunately, Chan's inability to write round characters and consistently
believable dialogue hampers the full blossoming of his theme. It's a great idea
that fails to fully grab the viewer's interest because we care about so few of
the characters. The lone exception, luckily, is Jeffrey Lau, who delivers a
quiet performance that sneaks up on you. He's appropriately awkward throughout
the film, unsure of his English and uncomfortable around any character who is at
all Western. The quality of Lau's acting snaps into sharp relief when
immigration agents raid the Szechuan Inn near the end of the film. For such a
subdued picture, the scene had me on the edge of my seat. I cared whether Robert
got caught. He's such a meek, sympathetic character, downtrodden in the manner
of Chaplin's Little Tramp, that it's impossible not to like him, not to root for
him. Absent Lau, Combination Platter would be a disaster of mediocre,
amateur acting.

This DVD release of Combination Platter from Koch Lorber is,
unfortunately, far from impressive. The image is washed out and slightly soft. I
suspect this is an NTSC conversion of a PAL transfer because there's ample
ghosting around quick movement. Though I've indicated in the specifications
section to the right that the film is presented in a full screen transfer, that
isn't entirely correct. The image is cropped ever so slightly at the top and
bottom, producing an aspect ratio of around 1.40:1, I'd guess. Compositional
framing looks fine, though, and I assume Chan shot the low-budget picture with
the intent it be exhibited at a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. It's difficult to image it
would look good even cropped to 1.66:1. The only other complaint I have about
the video presentation is that subtitles of Chinese dialogue are burned into the
image. There is enough Chinese dialogue to warrant menu-accessible optional
subs.

Surprisingly, audio is presented in both a 5.1 surround mix and the original
stereo. The surround track is hollow and artificial. Dialogue sounds oddly
detached from the actors, though it is in sync. The original stereo track is
natural and far less distracting.

With the exception of some trailers for a half-dozen or so other Koch Lorber
DVD releases, there are no extras.

Combination Platter is a decent film if one excuses the subpar acting
and technical flaws endemic in low-budget, independently-produced features.
Aside from Tony Chan's detailed understanding of culture clashes among
Chinese-Americans, and a sympathetic performance by Jeffrey Lau, the film
doesn't have much to offer. Still, those strengths are probably enough to
warrant a viewing if you're a fan of independent arthouse cinema. Because of the
DVD's low technical quality, though, I recommend a rental rather than a
purchase.